WASHINGTON (CNS)—Catholic agencies around the world have collected
more than $303 million for Haitian earthquake relief with additional
funds continuing to arrive daily.

The amount—totaling $303,362,571 as of Aug. 10—reflects money from
special collections sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops, Catholic Relief Services, the worldwide network of Caritas
Internationalis agencies and a smattering of other Catholic-connected
agencies sponsoring ministries in Haiti.

The total is likely to be significantly greater because the figures
provided by Caritas Internationalis, the Vatican-based umbrella
organization for Catholic humanitarian and development agencies, exclude
money raised by organizations and religious orders and congregations
outside of the Caritas network.

Of the amount ,nearly half—$147,473,281—came from U.S. Catholics.

A total of $82,269,255 was donated during special collections in
dioceses in the weeks after the quake, according to figures compiled
from the USCCB and CRS.
CRS has collected an additional $65,204,026 on its own, making the U.S.
Catholic community the largest contributor in the world to earthquake
relief efforts.

Non-Catholic U.S. nonprofit agencies collected an additional $1.1
billion for Haiti, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported July 9.

The USCCB credited Catholics for their generosity for responding to the
needs of Haitians after the Jan. 12 disaster even as they may have been
confronted by the worldwide recession.

"American Catholics are not just fair, I think they're more than fair,"
said Oblate Father Andrew Small, director of the Collection for the
Church in Latin America for the U.S. bishops. "When you see someone
suffering, you try and help them. When you see someone desperate, you do
everything you can to help them. Given the unique nature of the
devastation, we saw a unique outpouring of compassion and concrete
generosity."

Outside of the U.S. effort, donations to the network of Caritas
Internationalis agencies around the world totaled $151,247,000, the
agency reported to Catholic News Service.

Major funding was collected by the church in Netherlands ($42.2
million), Spain ($19.8 million), Germany ($15.8 million), United Kingdom
($13.2 million), Canada ($12 million) and Austria and France ($10.5
million each).

In the United States, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported that two
Catholic-related agencies collected more than $4.6 million for recovery
efforts. The Catholic Medical Mission Board collected $2,466,498, while
Fonkoze USA, a bank for poor Haitians started by a Haitian priest,
collected $2,175,792, the publication reported in July.

Those amounts are included in the total funding figure.

As for how the funds are being spent, only information about the U.S. funding is available.

Father Small said the bishops' administrative committee decided in March
to allocate 60 percent of the special collection to CRS for
humanitarian needs and use the remaining 40 percent for ecclesial needs,
such as the rebuilding of churches and parish schools and restarting
ministries.

That means, of the $82.2 million collected, $49.3 million will go to CRS
while $32.9 million will be used for rebuilding the Haitian church.

"The bishops recognized that in their initial appeal they were aware
that the church is really the only group that's going to look after
church needs," Father Small explained. "So it was important that that be
made clear at the outset of the initial appeal.

"So the question was, 'Who needs what?' I think (the bishops) realized
that no matter how much of an assessment was done on the needs, not even
the money we collected would really adequately address what is needed.
They decided what seems like a fair division so that the entire church
... can start planning what needs to be done. To wait for a so-called
comprehensive assessment to be done, we'd still be here in 10 years," he
said.

Members of the U.S. bishops' Haiti Advisory Group and a team of
U.S.-based engineers have met with Haitian church officials and
Archbishop Bernardito Auza, papal nuncio to Haiti, to begin planning how
to prioritize spending. The effort is emphasizing appropriate
construction methods so that new structures can withstand earthquakes as
well as strong hurricanes.

Seventy parishes in the Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince and the Diocese of
Jacmel were destroyed or seriously damaged by the quake, while an
additional 30 chapels and mission stations must be rebuilt, according to
Archbishop Auza.